High Flying Mario Moody Transferring From Wagner

Halfway through the second half in their November matchup versus Wagner, Coppin State had enough of Mario Moody. Within the span of five, maybe six minutes, the super athletic 6’7” forward had thrown down several Earth shattering dunks that brought the sparse Baltimore crowd to its feet. Even though it didn’t seem possible, each successive Moody dunk was more spectacular than the last. When the smoke cleared, Wagner enjoyed a comfortable double-digit lead heading into the under-8 media timeout.

Right before that timeout, however, Moody tried to entertain the crowd one last time (as if the Sportscenter Top Ten worthy mid-court steal and tomahawk jam wasn’t enough). After receiving the ball eight feet from the basket, the junior swiftly lost his defender, took a couple of steps toward the rim, and attempted an improbable 360 degree jam. Moody had the height (obviously!), yet the ball clanged hard off the back rim, rendering his overly ambitious attempt unsuccessful. Despite the miss, the crowd still gasped in delight; after all, no one playing at a low mid-major program should possess the athleticism to garner such a mind-numbing attempt. Bashir Mason, on the other hand, didn’t seem terribly enthused by Moody’s showboating.

That was the last minute Moody played for the game, as the final eight minutes belonged mostly to Wagner’s reserves as they maintained an easy non-conference victory. When I asked Mason afterwards if Moody’s exit from the game had anything to do with his playground style dunk attempt, he vehemently denied my suggestion. Mason assured me that he wanted to give his reserves, guys like Greg Senat, Dwaun Anderson and Nolan Long, some minutes late. Moody’s energy, in fact, was actually welcomed by Mason.

Moody’s game changing athleticism always had bloggers like John and myself drooling over Wagner’s prospects of getting into the NCAA tournament. With rim-altering presences like Moody, Orlando Parker, and Big Apple Buckets Defensive Player of the Year Naofall Folahan defending the interior, we secretly wondered how anyone would score against this lineup. And in reality, no one really did score inside the arc. NEC opponents only made 46.1% of their two-point attempts, in part due to Wagner’s insane block rate of 18.4%.

Heading into his senior season, Moody was supposed to be Staten Island’s main man in the middle, at least that was the idea until Alex Kline released this bombshell of a tweet around noon today:

Wagner forward Mario Moody has received his release from the program, a source says.

In addition to Moody, Wagner has now lost the services of Kenneth Ortiz, Latif Rivers, Orlando Parker and Folahan due to graduation, and it’s likely sharpshooter Jay Harris won’t return after being suspended late last season. (Kline later Tweeted that reserve Langston Burnett is also transferring.) All told, the Seahawks will have 23% of their returning possession minutes coming back for the 2014-15 season and they still have five empty scholarships to fill. Suffice it to say, this may be a deeper Wagner rebuild than anyone had ever envisioned.

But back to Moody. Despite the highlight reel dunks and nationally ranked rebound and block rates, the forward was, once again, somewhat inconsistent in his first season as an upperclassman. Even though he set a career low with 4.9 fouls committed per 40 minutes, Moody barely played more than half of Wagner’s available minutes. Why exactly was that the case? Well, Mason didn’t seem to trust him. In Wagner’s two NEC postseason games, Moody made all six of his field goal attempts and blocked five shots, and yet, the New Jersey native averaged a meager 13 minutes per game when the season was on the line. His lack of playing time didn’t seem to make sense from the outsider’s perspective.

Perhaps this is why the soon-to-be senior decided to find another program for his last season of eligibility. Then again, Moody posted an average at best 100.2 offensive rating and could only convert 47.7% of his 193 two-point shot attempts. He wasn’t dominating opponents on the offensive end, despite his physical gifts. Nor was he expected to given the offensive firepower around him, but his lack of consistency was rather puzzling.

It’s unknown if Moody will graduate from Wagner this semester, although it’s likely he’ll fall short as he finishes out his third year at the college. If that’s truly the case, Moody must sit out a season, as per NCAA transfer rules, in order to use up his final year of eligibility elsewhere. We may not realistically see Moody in a basketball uniform until the 2015-16 season rolls around.

Nevertheless, the forward has the rare opportunity to transfer up. Plenty of teams will be interested in his services, just as they were three offseasons ago when Dan Hurley plucked Moody away from interested programs like Temple, Florida Atlantic and Manhattan. Even if Moody’s new school must burn a scholarship for his transfer year, the athleticism and upside may be worth it.

For Bashir Mason, though, his third season coaching the green and white will be the most difficult year of his coaching career, especially with such little production returning. After barely missing out at a chance to play in the NEC tournament final for the past three seasons, it appears Wagner’s opportunity to go dancing has closed, at least for the time being. The rebuild is officially underway on Staten Island.

6 thoughts on “High Flying Mario Moody Transferring From Wagner”

This has a lot to say about Mason. Since his start at Wagner the players have hated him. He has no experience and little control over his team. He was given a group of talented players which managed to win him a lot of games, but in realty, the team was still riding off the coaching and energy that Hurley brought.

As a student, I was constantly hearing complaints from the players about Mason. It is no surprise that players want to transfer. So sad. It will be a long road to rebuilding, given that nobody in their right mind would want to come to Wagner to play for an inexperienced coach.

I’m not so sure about that. Mason just seems to need to be able to get his players in, and he’s shown the skills to be an excellent recruiter. The talent coming in with the freshman class next season is quite high. It’ll be interesting to see how Wagner performs when expectations are much lower than they’ve been the past few seasons. I wouldn’t expect a top 3 finish, but the Seahawks could still be in contention for at least a home game in the NEC tourney next season. More on the subject of production coming back, Wagner and the NEC tomorrow.

Wow !
How times have changed, finishing in 2nd in conference play two years in a row with 19-12 overall records doesn’t cut it ???
What it comes down to these days is playing time, it’s hard to keep everyone happy.
It can be tough when you have several players capable of doing the job only to have them sit.

I too questioned player selection during games at times this season.
Moody and Burton should have seen more playing time.

If managed right, Moody has the talent to be a first team all-league player. Instead he averaged 8.9 ppg and 5.9 rpg. Do you think this is due to the coach or due to the player? The player started just 14 games this season and played 22 mpg. Orlando Parker, a decent player but someone with not nearly the upside, played 25 mpg and started 17 games. I don’t think that has anything to do with “getting his players in”.

Also, what is your basis for saying the talent level coming into Wagner is “high”? I could be wrong, but it’s not like these guys are getting mid-to-high-level offers from other schools. Each of them had offers from other NEC schools, based on reports. And who knows if those offers were legit, or if they were contingent on the other schools not getting other players? Based on the film on YouTube, I see four guards that are going to be freshmen next season. I think the kid Henson has some talent, but the other three I’m not all that impressed by personally – Edmead is smallish and I’m not sure his game translates very well to D1 ball. The kid from Delaware is a good defender and I think could end up being similar to Ortiz but not right away. And Sanders is a reach.

Not to mention with four guards coming back and Moody/Parker/Folahan all gone, the size advantage they had on the NEC is gone.

Wagner will struggle next season – and the fact that you still think they’ll be a top 4 team in the league is laughable.

I agree, Moody should have had more playing time. In fact I think he should have started in place of Folahan. Wagner sacrificed some offense for a few blocked shots.
Player substitution was questionable at times.

As far as the future, Long and Senat are going to be very good ball players. They both provide something the Seahawks lacked. True, Wagner had the height but they lacked the muscle under the basket. Both Long and Senat showed the ability to muscle, rebound and score as freshman with limited playing time.

Burton is another very talented player who should have had even more time on the court, in fact he could have started along side of Ortiz rather than replacing him.
Andersons talent is there, he improved greatly on the defensive side of the ball. Now if only he can hit the outside shot, he could be unstoppable. That should be his priority in the off season.

As far as the incoming freshman already signed, time will tell.
What Wagner needs to do is set its sights on a PF and SF who can score. But that’s tough this late in the recruiting race, maybe a Juco ?

PS: Moody got his release, that doesn’t mean he can’t change his mind. It’s not easy to get a scholarship for 2 years just to play for one and there would be no guarantee of playing time on a new team.